As part of Pri Month, BBC Sport looks at why there is a lack of openly gay male MMA fighters and what needs to change.
Contents:
- UFC FIGHTER JEFF MOLA PUBLICLY SUPPORTS PRI MONTH, IS MISTAKEN FOR BEG GAY, AND IS OL ABOUT
- PRI MONTH: WHY ARE THERE NO OPENLY GAY MALE MMA FIGHTERS?
UFC FIGHTER JEFF MOLA PUBLICLY SUPPORTS PRI MONTH, IS MISTAKEN FOR BEG GAY, AND IS OL ABOUT
* ufc gay pride shirt *
If you spend enough time on MMA Twter then you know how disgtg fighters’ homophobia n get (lookg at you, Sean Strickland and Jake Shields). Of urse, all you have to do is go through the repli on Mola’s tweet to be remd jt how vile MMA Twter n be – pecially toward gay, lbian and transgenr people. For all the homophobic dus upset by me reppg pri month on my fight k y’all some u cups ?.
This left ltle room for clivy, and allowed homophobia to fter.
” Though Whe never apologized to Hunt, he apologized to the gay muny, statg that he “never meant to hurt anyone the gay or lbian muny at all, ” but still went on to say that he “absolutely, posively meant to attack the reporter, Loretta Hunt om Sherdog. In 2010, former UFC light heavyweight champn Quton “Rampage” Jackson, while filmg the A-Team Vanuver, told the Los Angel Tim that actg “is kd of gay. ” The paper also reported that Jackson had a nontatn wh one of the film’s crew members, durg which Jackson reportedly lled him “every nceivable gay slur.
PRI MONTH: WHY ARE THERE NO OPENLY GAY MALE MMA FIGHTERS?
” In 2011, legendary Brazilian fighter Anton Rodrigo Nogueira revealed that he has “no prejudice agast the gays” but “wouldn’t tra wh someone who’s gay. Former UFC welterweight champn Ge St-Pierre spoke out agast homophobic bullyg, and his ach, Firas Zahabi, implemented a strict policy agast hate speech wh his gym. In 2013, Liz Carmouche beme the first openly gay fighter to pete the UFC when she challenged Ronda Roey for the women’s bantamweight champnship.
Later that same year, former UFC light-heavyweight champn Rashad Evans—at the time one of the UFC’s most popular fighters—me out support of gay marriage. He explaed to Outsports that he is a “heterosexual guy a tough macho sport, which is exactly the reason I feel a duty to say I support gay marriage and gay rights. ”Kyle Kgsbury bent over durg a weigh- ceremony to reveal pk briefs wh a pro-gay marriage msage; UFC flyweight Joseph Benaviz stated (somewhat cly) that, “It would be ol to see a gay guy beat the sh out of somebody.
” The UFC even troduced a “Protect Yourself” HIV/AIDS awarens mpaign llaboratn wh the Lato Commissn on AIDS, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, and the LGBT Communy Center.